FireWall

See the fire from the inside

Corey ChandlerEddie Leung

Doantam PhanMichael Toomim

Overview Firefighting 101 Firefighting Difficulties Our Solution Representative Firefighting Tasks Design Evolution through Iteration Demonstration of FireWall’s Final UI Conclusion

Firefighting 101

Fire is called in to 911 911 contacts the appropriate fire

station Firefighters go to fire location One of the firefighters becomes

temporary incident commander Firefighting chief arrives later,

becomes IC

Firefighting Difficulties

Firefighting Preparation Site information is unavailable Knowledge of fire status often vague

Monitoring Status of Firefighters Firefighter location, amount of oxygen, and

physical status is vague, relies on radio contact Firefighting Organization

Task management system uses combination of memory and whiteboard system

FireWall: A Digital Whiteboard Command Post

Firefighting Preparation Provides important site information Thermal imaging shows fire status

Monitoring Status of Firefighters Displays firefighters’ locations Monitors firefighters’ oxygen amounts and body

temperatures Firefighting Organization

Supports task assignment and timing

What’s Missing

Precise thermal imaging Firefighter real-time location monitoring Blueprint system

Representative Firefighting Tasks

Task #1: In Transit Learn about the site of fire Brief the firefighters about situation

Task #2: Arrival On Scene Determine available resources Assign firefighter tasks

Task #3: Firefighter In Danger Receive an alert that firefighter is in danger Determine status and location of firefighter

in trouble Take measures to rescue downed firefighter

Design Evolution through Iteration:Contextual Inquiry

Interviewed firefighters at one of Berkeley’s fire stations

Changed initial project direction

Personal firefighter assistant

Command post

Design Evolution through Iteration:Lo-Fi Prototype

From sketches constructed initial interface

Tested on Oakland firefighters

Testing the Low Fidelity Prototype

Compensation for User Tests

Oakland User Test Results

Interaction Problems Button bar Site info Personnel

detail

Design Evolution through Iteration:Hi-Fi Prototype and Heuristic Eval.

Developed first hi-fi prototype using Macromedia’s Director 8

Underwent peer Heuristic Evaluation

Changes: Lo-fi to Hi-fi

Heuristic Evaluation Results

Poor Visuals Clickable

buttons Cluttered map Tabbed

Personnel Shaded

regions

Design Evolution through Iteration:Hi-Fi Prototype Version 2

Developed second version of hi-fi prototype

Tested on Richmond firefighters

Changes: Hi-fi v.1 to Hi-fi v.2

Richmond User Test Results

More Features Timed tasks Additional

task Improved

danger notification

Conclusion Summary:

Firewall is a system that provides information management to firefighting incident commanders

FireWall for CS160 Importance of contextual inquiry Value of design iteration

FireWall for Incident Commanders "The system that we have doesn't work that well.”

– Oakland firefighter

http://ratbert.bmrc.berkeley.edu/courseware/cs160/fall00/Projects/firefighting/Special thanks to the Berkeley, Oakland, and Richmond fire departments.